Massaging machine, vibrator type



Jan. 14, 1930. A; w. MERTENS MASSAGING MACHINE YVIBRATOR TYPE 2 Sheets-Sheet.

Filed Aug- 1928 Patented Jan. 14, 1930 unite ADOLIBH W. MERTENS, OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA MASSAGING MACHINE, VIBRA'I'OR TYPE Application filed August 16, 1928. Serial No. 299,940.

This invention relates to massaging machines and especially to massaging machines of the electric vibrator type.

It is an object of my invention to provide an extremely simple, compact massaging machine of few parts adapted to massage or exercise various parts of the body and capable of applying massage at various heights.

A further obj ectis to provide a highly eificient'vibrator massaging machine eliminating the use of gears, counter-shafts, pulleys and other power transmission mechanisms, and so construct'ed'that it will make very little noise when operating and will transmit practically no vibration to the fioor or other support.

Another object is to provide a massaging machine having a non-vibrative and non-resonant supporting base and provided with a motor support secured to said base, said motor support being so constructed as to prevent the base from tipping when a pull is trans-' mitted upon the motor and also constructed to prevent vibration orresonance'of the frame and base and the member to which the motor is directly attached.

Still another object is to provide an electric massaging machine wherein the vibratory power is taken directly off the armature shaft of an electric'motorwithout the inter-position of power transmissionmechanism, such as countershafts, pulleys and gears. These and other objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description madeiin connection with the accompanying drawings in which like reference characters refer to similar parts throughoutthe several views and in which:

Fig. l is a top plan view of a preferred em- 40 bodiment of my invention; i

Fig. 2 is a side elevation of the same; Fig. 3 is a front elevation of the same; Fig. 4': is a cross sect-ion on a larger scale taken on the line el4c of Fig. 3; and Fig. 5 is a cross section of the vibrating mechanism taken'on the line 55of Fig. 3, some parts being broken away, showing the connections between the armature shaft of the motor and the massagingbelt. It is essential in providing vibrating massaging machinesto mount the motor and the moving parts upon a suitable frame, which may be portable and need not be secured to the floor or the wall, especially since the in-. tense vibration of the device will cause most brackets secured to a floor or wall to work loose and furthermore will cause ,the walls or articles in a room to vibrate noisily. In vibratory and massaging machines, a massaging belt is employed adapted to encircle or partially encircle the portion of the body to be massaged. Pull must necessarily be put upon this belt to maintain the same taut before the massaging can take place. The pull may be increased or decreased to increase or decrease the violence of the massage. It is, therefore, necessary to provide a base and support for the vibrating mechanism which cannot be tipped over by the pull applied to the massaging belt and to which the motor or vibrating mechanism may be rigidly secured without danger of the parts working loose or vibrating noisily when the machine is operated. I

' I provide a wide base member 6 illustrated of circular or disc form preferably made of cork or some other non-resonant compressible material. A large annular member, shown of angular cross section 7 surrounds the upper circumferential portion of base 6 but, so however, has-its lower edge spaced above the bottom of base 6. V

A tripod standard is rigidly secured at its lower end to the annular member 7 by any suitable means, such as welding. My standard comprises a substantially vertical back i post 8 which may be tubular if desired and a pair of inclined front posts 9, which also may be made of tubular stock, said front posts being inclined toward each other and toward the back post 8. The lower ends of post 8 and posts 9 are spaced well apart and triangularly arranged and it will be noticed that the back post 8 is centrally disposed between V posts'9 and that an arm of slightly over 90 of the cylindrical base 6 extends between the rear postand the front posts. The upper ends of the posts 8 and 9 are rigidly secured together by any suitable means, such as the cap member 10 having sockets surrounding the extremities of said posts. A horizontal shelf 11 is rigidly supported by my said standard, as shown being approximately midway between the top and bottom of said standard. Shelf 11 is provided with a vertically disposed sleeve 11 adapted to surroundthe rear post 8 and a pair of inclined sleeves 11 at its intermediate ,portionadapted to surround thefront posts 9. The sleeves 11 and 11 are obviously arranged at the corners of a triangle and connected with the posts of the standard in the manner shown, will cause the shelf to be rigidly supported against vibration and will furthermore in cooperation with the shelf'll brace and greatly reinforce the standard at its medial portion. Shelf 11 has a forward end which projects slightly beyond the front posts 9 and to said forward part a suitable motor M is secured, a block 12 of compressible non-resonant material, such as rubber beingpreferably interposed between the base of the motor and shelf 11. The base of the motor may be secured to the shelf 11 by the vertical bolts 13 or in any other suitable manner. Motor M, as best seen in Figs. 3 and 5, preferably has an elongated armature shaft 14, which projects from the motor casing at each end thereof. Housings, are provided which may comprise shells 15 preferably of some non-resonant material,

such as fiber, said shells surrounding the ends of the motor casing and also the ends of the projecting armature shaft but each having a forward opening 15 -through which connections with the massaging belt may be made. To form the apertures or openings 15, it is only necessary to out diametric slots through the diminished portion of the shells 15 and on the forward side thereof.

Each end of the motor armature shaft 14 has pinned or otherwise rigidly secured thereto a crank disc or crank sleeve 16 and said crank sleeves carry crank pins 17 projecting 1 face at all times for the annular portion at a the inner ends of connection members 18. Connection members 18 are secured against longitudinal displacement to the crank pins 17 by any suitable means, such as the collars 19 at the ends of said wrist pins. Connection members 18 may terminate at their outer ends in T-heads 18 adapted to be interlocked and connected with loops 20 slotted longitudinally, which loops are firmly secured to the extremities of a massaging belt 20. The connections 18, of course, extend through the apertures 15 in the shell members 15 and said apertures are of such size and shape that the massaging belt 20 may be disposed at all required angles with reference to the floor or supporting surface for the base necessary to massage all parts of the human body when a person is standing or sitting at the front of themachine.

The two crank pins located at and directly connected with the two opposite ends of the armature shaft are reversed with respect to each other so that a sharp vibratory action will be placed upon the massage belt 20 when the motor is operated. Suitable service wires 21 lead to the motor and may be equipped with a suitable switch 22 for making or breaking the circuit through the motor.-

To utilize the device, the subject or patient stands at the front of the machine, partially encircling the portion of his body to be massaged with the belt 20. The two ends of the belt are connected with their respective connection members 18 by merely inserting the T-heads of said connectionmembers within the slotted loops 20 Current is then turned on and the belt is made taut by transmitting a pull thereon. This, of course, is done by moving th portion of the body to be massaged away from the machine. The greater the pull upon belt 20 the more violent the massage. The subject can thus obtain the desired results at will. The weight of the motor and the pull transmitted upon the connection members 18 cause the shelf 11 to tend to be forced downwardly upon the upright standard and the construction of this mounting for the motor overcomes the tendency of the standard or motor to vibrate. I All vibration" must be imparted to the floor or room through the compressible non-resonant base 6. Consequently, the machine is comparatively noiseless. -By constructing the standard in the manner illustrated and described, it will beseen that even though a considerable pull is transmitted to the connection members 18 for the motor, there will be no danger of the base 6 lifting or tilting upon the floor, the front posts 9 beinginclined and being connected at their lower ends past the center line of the base which is parallel with a line drawn through the lower ends of posts 9.

This is a very important feature, since it enables a portable device to be provided without requiring attachment to walls, floors, etc., and without requiring an extremely heavy base or frame. V 7

There have been other massaging devices on the market of vibratory form but to applicants knowledge all of these have employed an elaborate system of pulleys or power takeoffs from the motor to transmit vibration to the massaging belt. This invention provides for the direct connection of the massaging belt with the armature shaft of the motor,

thereby eliminating gears, pulleys and other elements previously employed.

From the foregoing description, it will be seen that I have invented an extremely sim ple but highly efficient massaging machine adapted to be easily transported and capable V ofapplying vibratory massage to various parts of the body, the belt being adjustable angularly from the floor level to the top of the head.

It will be further seen that with my device the noise and vibration is greatly eliminated because of the base construction, elimination power transmitting mechanism and mounting of the motor in connection with the tripod standard.

It will, of course, be understood that various changes may be made in the form, details, arrangement and proportions of the parts without departing from the scope of applicants invention. 1

What is claimed is:

1. In a massaging-machine a base, a standard rigidly secured at its lower end to said base and comprising three posts, having their lower ends spaced apart and having their upper ends converging and rigidly secured together, a motor support having means for engaging said three posts and disposed medially of the top and bottom of said standard, a motor mounted on said support, a massaging belt, means for connecting the ends of said massaging belt with said motor to vibrate said massaging belt.

2. In a massaging machine, a base of considerable area, a standard secured at its lower end to said base and comprising a rear post disposed substantially vertically and a pair of spaced forward posts inclined from the vertical and toward said rear post, means for rigidly securing the upper ends of said three posts together, a motor support having means for engaging said three posts and disposed medially of the top and bottom of said standard, a motor mounted on said support, a massaging belt, and means for connecting the ends of said massaging belt with said motor to vibrate said massaging belt.

3. In a massaging machine, a base of considerable area constructed of non-resonent compressible material, a reinforcing member encircling said base, a standard secured to said reinforcing member at its lower edge and comprising three posts spaced apart at their lower ends and converging at their upper ends, means for rigidly securing the upper ends of said posts together, a substantially horizontal motor support engaging said three posts and disposed medially of the top and bottom of said standard, a motor mounted on said support, a massaging belt, and means for connecting the ends of said massaging belt with said motor to vibrate said massaging belt.

4. In a massaging machine, a support, an

electric motor fixed to said support and mounted some distance above the base thereof, said motor having a rotary shaft projecting for some distance from both ends of said motor, oppositely arranged crank pins secured to the projecting ends of said shaft, a massaging belt, and a pair of connection members, each having a bearing through which one of said crank pins extends and having connection means engageable with said belt. 7 i

5. In a massaging machine, an electric motor having an elongated armature shaft,

which projects at each end for a considerable distance beyond'the motor proper, oppositely arranged crank pins secured to said projecting ends of the shaft, a flexible massaging belt, connection members comprising shanks having annular inner ends provided with bearings for receiving said crank pins, and attachment outer ends adapted to be connected with the ends of said belt, and cap members disposed over the ends of said motor and having recessed portions through which said connection members extend.

In testimony whereof I affix my signature.

ADOLPH W. MERTENS. 

